Attendance record of 195,133 visitors in the Dalí & Magritte exhibition

The Dalí & Magritte exhibition that closed its doors on Sunday 16 February at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) attracted a record total of 195,133 visitors. This makes Dalí & Magritte most visited RMFAB exhibition of the last twenty years.

The museum recorded weekend attendance peaks of more than 5,000 visitors. Following the demand of the public, the exhibition - often sold out - was exceptionally opened seven days a week from 23 December 2019 onwards and extended until 16 February 2020.

This impressive success is the result of several factors. Firstly, the exhibition offered, for the very first time, an original and unexpected dialogue between Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, the two greatest icons of Surrealism. It also reached a very broad audience, from younger to older people, and from the most erudite to the most curious. Visitors could not only discover Dalí’s and Magritte’s work, but had the unique chance to explore the personal, philosophical and aesthetic links between the two artists. More than 40 international museums (TATE, SF MoMA, MET, Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou, etc.) and private collections lent their masterpieces for this unique event.Emotions ran high; in part thanks to the extraordinary cultural mediation tools that encouraged visitors to dream, invent, build and share their own creations.

An unprecedented level of public participationFour creative workshops located in the exhibition allowed the public to fully immerse themselves in the creative processes of Dalí and Magritte. A large number of visitors shared their own works in these spaces, which offered everyone the chance to unleash their imagination in a playful and participatory manner. More than 5,000 drawings, sketches and cadavre exquis were crafted by children of all ages, visibly inspired by the famous Surrealists.

Three professional illustrators - Fabrice Lavollay, Piotr W. Osburne and David Peeters - were invited by the museum and Bruzz to discover these incredible creations made by the public. Each illustrator made a personal selection of drawings that have left a mark, challenged or inspired him.

For everyone’s pleasure, this selection will be accessible to all at the Magritte Museum (level -1) from 28 February 2020 (free entrance). In addition, the three illustrators will each exhibit their own unpublished work, made specially for the museum, reflecting their interpretation of the dialogue between Dalí and Magritte.